Another newbie telescope purchase advice thread

[AVRNJ]

Sorry in advance, i see there are many of these threads, I have read through many and I am still unclear.

Looking for a combined Christmas/Birthday present for my son. He is very into the moon, the stars, the planets, etc. from the perspective of instagram and just general researching. He has asked for a first telescope. He is going to be 13. 

My only experience with a telescope was buying one for my wife about 20 years ago, she too is very into all of this. I believe I spent like $150 on it, don't remember what we got, but we took it out a few times and we could not see anything, and lost interest in it right away. Someone I worked with at the time told me that there is a bare minimum you need to spend to get even a decent experience.

I think that is what I am trying to figure out. 

I don't know with 100% certainty he will be into it long term, but I know with 100% certainty if he gets frustrated early he will lose interest right away. So i want to get something good enough that he can give this a real chance to see how into it he is, but not spend so much that if he is not as into it as I hope, its a huge waste of money.

My original budget was around $500, so I was looking at things like the Celestron Nexstar 4 SE in that range, and then in my research came across people saying you really need at least the 6, others say you need at least the 8, and on and on.

if the 8 is the bare min to get something that he can use without getting frustrated, and explore, i am willing to go that high, although I would rather not. Much higher than that and I have to question this.

If anyone can share perspectives on this I would be very appreciative, this whole field is overwhelming with so many different opinions and perspectives

[Second Time Around]

I think the main reason why people lose interest is that they find it hard to find objects.  This is especially so in towns and cities where there are few stars to see with the naked eye to guide you to objects.

Therefore I'd very much recommend that you look at Celestron Starsense scopes.  These make it very easy to find objects with a free smartphone app - indeed my 8 year old grandson picked up how to use it in minutes.

Go to https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-starsense-explorer-series.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA35urBhDCARIsAOU7Qwnbi6bN7TTF30Xxg8ALXRvQWIoxQcdIdhMIofHouUaaA4qQKzz4AKcaAiaJEALw_wcB

Just spotted you mentioned $s, so here's a link to Celestron's US page in Starsense Explorer scopes - the range is slightly different to what we have in the UK.

https://www.celestron.com/collections/starsense-explorer-smartphone-app-enabled-telescopes

Edited November 29, 2023 by Second Time Around

[Elp]

For the insta generation there's only one real option. Get a ZWO Seestar. It won't work on planets due to the short focal length, but you'll see far more with it than a traditional visual scope. If it doesn't work out it'll sell easily as it's currently an in demand object. I would not consider anything else unless they have a genuine passion for the stars, and judging by how your previous equipment was given up on so easily, they'll just get bored of it. True "astronomers" will fight tooth and nail with the equipment they have at hand to get a result no matter how different it may be from the pretty images you see on the internet.

Or get some good large aperture binoculars which can be mounted onto a tripod for stability, low cost of entry and you'd be able to gauge their usage from an initial start.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Elp

[M40]

Hello AVRNJ and welcome to the site. 

+1 for everything that has been said above and Elp beat me on the seestar. It's very portable, uses technology thats easily shared and the images can be improved with additional and mostly free software. As Elp said, no good at all for planets, moon yes and sun yes. One caveat is that if he gets on with it, it could put you on the lip of that rabbit hole. All the best.

[AVRNJ]

Thanks everyone for the replies, very helpful